Editorial: Flying the flag

“Snob Labour MP’s Twitter dig at White Van Man’s England Flags,” said the front page of  The Sun newspaper yesterday after a Labour MP appeared to sneer at a photograph of a house in Rochester  “flying the flag.” This whole episode rather sums up the Labour Party at the moment, out-of-touch and rather lost under the leadership of Ed Miliband. But I also think that the whole episode has been blown  out of  all proportion. The England flags were placed on the house for the World Cup; this was not a sentiment of England the nation, rather than England the football squad. I sincerely doubt that this was a stand against immigration, the European Union or the fact that the political elite are out of touch. This was flying the flag for Roy´s Boys in Brazil. I suspect there are plenty of homes up and down Britain which  are flying the flag but of course this house was “special” because it was in Rochester the scene of the United Kingdom Independence Party´s latest success. There are plenty of reasons for flying the flag for Britain. I think you can say that one of Britain´s proudest moments in recent history was when it welcomed hundreds of thousands of people from Nazi tyranny from all Europe. Polish and other Eastern European pilots helped the Royal Air Force win the Battle of Britain which was fought in the skies above Rochester 75 years ago. And now  these same Eastern Europeans are not welcome  in the Britain of UKIP.   There are reasons to fly the Union flag in Rochester as a lasting tribute to “The Few” in the Battle of Britain.  “Roy´s Boys” are not in the same league.